Wigmore Castle
' The Early Years (1067-1155) ' Wigmore Castle is a ruined castle which is placed by the Wigmore Rolls at the village of Wigmore. The castle was founded in 1067 by William FitzOsbern, who was the first earl of Hereford, and he also built other castles during the time, like Clifford Castle, Chepstow Castle, Berkeley Castle, etc. The castle had an earlier site when it was founded, and was built out of timber like most early castles did, but the original site has not been found as of present day. The founder of the castle was killed at Flanders in 1071, so his son took over the ownership for a few years until in 1075, he was taken to prison by King William I and the king himself seized the castle and gave the ownership to one of his supporters, who was known as Ralph de Mortimer. This person and his following family members owned the castle from the late 11th century to the early 15th century. Wigmore Castle was also the Mortimer's head castle for it's time as well. The following eighty years later after this event, King Henry II was going to besiege Hugh de Mortimer's three castles (Wigmore, Bridgnorth, and Cleobury) due to Hugh refusing to return Bridgnorth to the crown. However, the king did allow Hugh to keep Wigmore and Bridgnorth Castle, although Cleobury Castle was destroyed for good and did not make a comeback. ' Timber to Stone (c.1160s-c.1300s) ' The next decade after the timber castle was besieged in 1155, the entire structure and location were going to change for Wigmore Castle. The castle was going to convert from timber to stone. Not everything was going to be knocked down, as their first steps were to build one of the walls out of stone (picture on the left is an example) and in the 13th century further work were going to be carried out for the conversion. Legend knows that Hugh de Mortimer was given royal money for the castle's garrisoning. Later on the later family members of the Mortimer family were still extending the castle's size and remodelling parts, such as the gatehouse, the walls being raised, and more towers were being added to the site, some of which are still standing by this day. ' The Good and the Bad (1304-1424) ' When Edmund Mortimer died at the age of twenty-two in 1304, Roger Mortimer (First Earl of March) had owned the castle and also did some changes to it. The strength of the Mortimer family increased massively and owned many castle sites, such as Ludlow Castle along with some castle sites in Ireland. He also became a leader of a party, although King Edward II was not happy with this. Not only that, Roger became the lover of Edward's queen, Isabella of France. When Edward II died in 1327, it was strange to know that Roger, along with Isabella and King Edward III, became the most important person in the kingdom. However, things were not looking good in the later years. Around 1330, many nobles were very annoyed with Roger and some people like Henry, Earl of Lancaster tried to overthrow him, however it did not work that well. Then, Roger executed Edmund, Earl of Kent. After this event, Henry requested the king to get rid of Roger Mortimer for once and for all. Then, when October arrived and it was not long until Edward's birthday, he seized Isabella and Roger, but then Isabella told her son (who was Edward III) to have pity on Roger instead of both of them. Roger was then taken from Nottingham Castle to Tybern, which had a hanging tree called "The Tybern Tree" and without trial, Roger was defeatingly hanged on November 29th 1330. He was buried at Wigmore Abbey. During the summer of 1332, King Edward III stayed several weeks at Wigmore Castle. The later Mortimer family members still continued to own the castle for the rest of the century and for the next century, but in 1424, saw the sad fate for all the male line of the Mortimer family being extinct and Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York became the new owner of the castle. ' The Final Years (1425-1643) ' A year after Richard started owning the castle, the castle was strangely turned derelict, but this could not be true, as there possibly building work carried out there in the mid 15th century. In 1461 saw the battle of Mortimer's Cross, which didn't take part in the castle but the battle took place outside the village of Kingsland. Richard's son, Edward, was possibly based at this castle before his victory at the battle of Mortimer's Cross. After his victory, he removed Henry VI as king and placed/crowned himself as king, which he became King Edward IV. For the rest of the 16th century the castle was owned by the "Council of the Marches", however they started to use some parts of the castle as a prison. During this time, the castle started to decay once again, and it's relative Wigmore Abbey, which was taken down in 1530 during the "Dissolution of the Monasteries" era. In 1595, Gelli Meyrick, who was a welsh supporter of Robert Devereux, was given the ownership of the castle, but due to him being a supporter of Robert, Queen Elizabeth I had executed Robert for treason in 25th February 1601, and a few weeks later Gelli Meyrick was also executed for being a traitor. Elizabeth then sold the castle to the Harley family, which are also known as the current owners of Brampton Bryan Castle and Brampton Bryan Hall. The first Harley family member to own the castle was Thomas Harley of Brampton Bryan. He later gave the castle to his son, Robert Harley. The Civil War arrived in 1642, and this event saw the many deaths of castles in Great Britain. Robert Harley was a Parliamentarian at this time, so he left his wife in charge of the castle. She was known as Lady Brilliana Harley, who was a talented letter-writer. She found it quite difficult to garrison the castle during the Civil War, so it was then dismantled and has remained a ruin ever since 1643. ' The Castle Today (1643-Present) ' Wigmore Castle did not look for a good future when it started to crumble to it's present condition, although most of the structure remains were still standing during the mid 17th and early 19th century, in the early-mid 19th century, some sections of the castle started to sink to the ground. This includes the gatehouse and the certain wall by the keep. The gatehouse has sunk to it's first floor level, which now makes it difficult for present visitors to go through, as they have to go underneath to get through the entrance of the castle. The certain wall by the keep has sunk slightly, but is clearly obvious that the wall is not as tall as it used to be. Not only that, but although most castles were preserved during it's collapsing era, Wigmore Castle was not even preserved at all and was left as a crumbling ruin with not much to see. Luckily, the castle did not have any stone robbers, so that the castle would still be original, and in 1995, English Heritage owned the site and began restoration works. Sadly, this did not go out successfully, as clearing out the trees and other parts took too much time and was left as it was, with some few changes. They also planned to make a visitor centre for the castle as well, but the project was abandoned. The visitor centre stands derelict, and is still standing to this day. The castle as of 2017 has some repairs on the steps of the castle keep, so you can't climb up the keep until the beginning of spring 2018, but you can go into the castle for free and discover it's buildings and history. There are signs that tell you information about the castle and give you warnings about entering the site. ' Gallery ' Wigmore Castle (1727).png|Samuel and Nathaniel Buck's engraving of Wigmore Castle (1732) Wigmore Castle (1778).png|N Green & F Jukes' engraving of Wigmore Castle (1778) Wigmore Castle (1800).jpg|J. Ross' engraving of Wigmore Castle (c.1800) Wigmore Castle (1806).png|W Byrne's engraving of Wigmore Castle (1806) Wigmore Castle (18072).png|W Woolnoth's engraving of Wigmore Castle (1807) Wigmore Castle (c.1844).png|Engraving of Wigmore Castle (c.1840s) Wigmore Castle (1844).png|Engraving of Wigmore Castle (1844) Wigmore Castle (c.1900).PNG|Wigmore Castle (c.1900) Wigmore Castle (1910).png|Wigmore Castle (c.1910s) Wigmore Castle (1986).jpg|Wigmore Castle (1986) Wigmore Castle (1999).jpg|English Heritage opens Wigmore Castle (October 12th, 1999) Wigmore Castle (2000).jpg|Gatehouse (2000) Wigmore Castle Gatehouse.jpg|Gatehouse (2009) Wigmore Castle Gatehouse (Back).jpg|Gatehouse (Back) Wigmore Castle (East Tower).jpg|East Tower (Back) Wigmore Castle (East Tower2).jpg|East Tower (Note: St. James Church in the distance) Wigmore Castle (North East Tower).jpg|North East Tower o.png|North East Tower (Back) Wigmore Castle (Lodging Tower).PNG|Lodging Tower Wigmore Castle (Lodging Tower3).PNG|View from Lodging Tower Wigmore Castle (Lodging Tower2).PNG|Lodging Tower (Back) Wigmore Castle Wall2.PNG|Certain Wall (Between Lodging Tower and Keep) Wigmore Castle (Keep).jpg|Keep Wigmore Castle (South Tower).jpg|South Tower Wigmore Castle (South Tower2).jpg|South Tower (Back) Wigmore Castle (South West Tower).jpg|South West Tower Wigmore Castle Visitor Centre.jpg|Visitor Centre (Derelict) Sign to Wigmore Castle Visitor Centre.jpg|Visitor Centre (Sign) Wigmr.png|Wigmore Castle from the A4110 Wigmore Castle (view).jpg|Wigmore Castle (Whole View) Wigmore Castle (Reconstruction #1).jpg|Reconstruction #1 Wigmore Castle (Reco).jpg|Reconstruction #2 ehh.jpg|Reconstruction #3 (Model at Ludlow Museum) Category:Herefordshire Category:Fragmentary Ruins Category:Names: W